The Massachusetts Bay Company was a commercial corporation which obtained its charter from Charles I. In 1629 the company came under the control of Puritans, and "certain Puritan leaders, the most prominent of whom was John Winthrop, agreed to migrate if the charter and government were transferred to America" (Faulkner 39). The government they formed included a bicameral legislature called the General Court. The upper house was composed of the governor and his assistants while the lower house was composed of deputies who were freemen and property owners. The deputies elected the assistants who wielded authority "under certain restraints" from them (Johnson).
Faulkner, Harold Underwood. American Political and Social History. 7th ed. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1957.
Johnson, Thomas H. The Oxford Companion to American History. New York: Oxford UP, 1966.
"Massachusetts." Britannica Micropaedia 1992 ed.